Owen and Moley

Background

Brothers Owen and Moley Ó Súilleabháin grew up in a musical household; their parents are singer Nóirín Ní Riain and composer-pianist Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. They began professional recording in 2007, collaborating with their mother on the Amen album (released as Celtic Joy in the United States). The duo have also recorded with Grammy Award-winning singer Moya Brennan. Owen, the elder brother, first recorded professionally in 2003 with Sinéad O'Connor, Nóirín Ní Riain, poet John O'Donohue, and the Monks of Glenstal Abbey on the album Biscantorat.

He became director of the Sionna Festival in 2005, earned a degree in Philosophy at University College Dublin and a master's in Peace Studies at the University of Limerick, and served as Orchestral Manager for the World Youth Orchestra in Rome. He taught English to refugees in Limerick from 2002 to 2012. Moley earned an M.A. in Ethnomusicology at the University of Limerick, studying rap music and culture in County Cork. He sang and played bodhrán with The Chieftains at Belfast Festival at Queens in 2007 and is an expert in beatbox techniques, which led to recording with Bobby McFerrin.

History

Owen and Moley started recording together in 2007, finishing their first album, size2shoes, the following year. Kevin Lynch, who worked with U2 and Elvis Costello, produced it. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Irish media gave it strong notices, which led to national coverage and inspired more writing. Critics compared the duo to Scullion and Sonny Condell.

A Dublin show in October 2008, with guest Julie Feeney, earned comparisons to an unplugged Simon & Garfunkel and Steely Dan. They played Electric Picnic in September 2009, launched size2shoes at Crawdaddy in Dublin, and opened for Hothouse Flowers that same month. They soon announced a second album, previewing songs at the National Concert Hall and on Spin FM in early 2009, and said they would record part of it at Russell Crowe’s studio in Australia.

That album, Happy Songs, came out in 2011. The duo had cameo roles in Steven Spielberg’s 2011 film War Horse and its soundtrack, but those scenes were cut. From 2013 onward, they have focused on performing songs inherited from their parents alongside their own work. In 2019, they recorded an hour-long PBS special that aired as Season 4, Episode 2 of The Kate.